Fiction Reviews
Buried Deep and Other Stories
(2024) Naomi Novik, Del Rey, £9.99, pbk, x + 428pp, ISBN 978-1-804-94706-7
A very nice set of thirteen fantasy tales: I do like short stories and these did not disappoint.
In ‘Araminta, or, The Wreck Of The Amphidrake’ the lady Araminta is captured by pirates but there is more to her than they realise. Shipwrecked on a strange island, Araminta makes a sacrifice to a goddess and is duly rewarded.
With ‘After Hours’ we find ourselves at a school for witches and magicians and follow a young student and her friends as they break the rules and sneak out at night. There is a reason for those rules!
‘Vici’ is set in ancient Rome. As a punishment for being a general reprobate, Anthony is sent alone to kill a dragon, i.e. a chance to die in glory rather than face a painful and humiliating execution. Surprisingly he succeeds and claims the dragon’s treasures, including a dragon egg. When it hatches, he has his own dragon! Moving on to ‘Buried Deep’, we find that King Minos, having crossed a god, becomes father to a bull-like son. Rather than face the public humiliation of his punishment, he locks up his son in an underground labyrinth, creating the Minotaur.
‘Spinning Silver’ tells of a moneylender’s daughter who collects her father’s debts. Spying her success with handling money, a Staryk asks her to change fairly silver into gold - and ‘no’ is not an option.
Set just after Sherlock Holmes dies at the Reichenbach Falls, ‘Commonplaces’ introduces us to Irene. She is not convinced when she hears the announcement; she knows him too well and sets out to find the truth.
‘Seven’ is the name of a city, home to potters who make exquisite pottery. They do so at the price of their own lives - but Kath intends to live.
In ‘Blessings’ we learn of fairies who compete to give the best blessing to a baby.
The wartime trenches is the setting for ‘Lord Dunsany’s Teapot’. Russell and the younger Edward form a friendship over cups of tea though only later does Edward come to understand Russell’s philosophy about ‘being all right’, given the deaths all around them.
In ‘Seven Years From Home’ Ruth is assigned to the planet Terce and tasked with aiding the efforts of the Confederacy to absorb the planet and its peoples. She discovers that the Melidans do not want to be annexed - and they are very different from any race yet encountered.
‘Dragons & Decorum’ concerns how Miss Elizabeth Bennett, from a most respectable family, becomes Captain Bennett of the King’s Aerial Corps. Most of her family and friends regard her as horribly lost to polite society, especially as she now rides a dragon, Wollstonecraft. Mr Darcy, of Pemberly, however, slowly appreciates her for who she is – might he at long last have found his intended?
Married to an older king, ‘Castle Coeurlieu’ tells of a young wife and her exploration of the mysterious tower - despite all the tales of warning.
Finally, in ‘The Long Way Round’, we follow Tess. Despite her young age, she is a master sailor and, like the other folk of Port Ester (and indeed all other lands), she greatly resents the monstrous duties the folks of Syrac charge all that sail through their waters. What if there was another sailing route for traders? One that went the long way round?
Each story is written in a different style and you could be forgiven for thinking that each was written by a different author. Whilst mostly fantasy, some were ‘historic’ or mythic whilst others were pure fantasy, and there was one solid science fiction story. They differed in length from ten to sixty-six pages and were all interesting and quite different. Whilst I did think that the longer stories could have had a touch more pace, this is a very enjoyable collection.
Peter Tyers
See also Ian's review.
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